The nationwide deployment of ERA-GLONASS, a real-time satellite-based service for reporting and responding to traffic accidents, is entering the home stretch. By August 2013, 62 more Russian regions will be connected to the system’s infrastructure, Digit.ru reported earlier this week.
As a result of a tender, GLONASS, a non-profit partnership which carries out the task of building the system’s infrastructure, will deal with Russia’s four main telecom providers – Rostelecom, MegaFon, MTS, and Vimpelcom – which will participate in program implementation.
“The ERA-GLONASS system will be ready for operation testing in all Russian regions in December 2013,” said GLONASS CEO Aleksandr Gurko in a press statement.
A long and winding road
The deployment of ERA-GLONASS in Russia started in 2011, when the national navigation services provider, Navigation Information Systems (NIS), signed respective agreements with a number of Russian regions. A year later, the project was joined by Intel Software, an Intel subsidiary and a resident of Skolkovo, the international tech hub nearing completion on the outskirts of Moscow. Intel Software developed the actual hardware-software solution for ERA-GLONASS.
The idea of the project is to pre-install ERA-GLONASS VDUs on new cars and public transport vehicles to enable quick emergency alerts and hopefully lower the death rate in traffic accidents.
The system is supposed to be up and running by March 2014, but the plans may need to be adjusted taking into account local realities. For instance, transportation companies in Saratov, in the Lower Volga region, had GLONASS equipment installed in April 2013 to comply with Presidential decrees; however, regional authorities found that the navigation equipment the carriers spent years buying and installing to insure compliance with federal mandates was in fact “inadequate.”
